The market for plants can be considered as being divided into two categories:                (a) Consumable plants—namely, plants that are capable of being dissipated, wasted or spent in a relatively short time span (days to months). As such, these plants are purchased recurrently, once used up or discarded;        (b) Durable plants—namely, plants that are purchased and intended to live a relatively long period of time (years) either in pots or planted in the garden.        
Consumable plants may be purchased as edible food products (e.g. cut or potted herbs, cut edible flowers or vine fruits (e.g. strawberries, tomatoes), leaf vegetables such as lettuce) and/or for ornamental purposes (e.g. cut flowers or floral arrangements).
The harvesting and post-harvest processing of consumable plants (including plant parts such as leaves, stems, core, fruit, flowers) encounter a number of risks that can affect plant quality and shelf-life. For edible plants, there is the additional risk of contamination that poses a significant food safety issue.
Of greatest concern to the life of cut plants (whether edible plants or ornamental plants) is microbial contamination. This may be arise from the use of contaminated water to spray plants and prevent dehydration and/or due to micro-organisms proliferating in the plant water and at cut plant ends.
For cut flowers, the use of floral preservatives is required to extend the life of cut flowers. Commercial preservatives include a germicide that kills micro-organisms—often a chemical such as bleach.
For cut edible plants, the use of germicides is not possible. Therefore, measures are required to minimise exposure to microbial contamination in the first place (e.g. using potable water at all times, minimising contact with contaminated surfaces and equipment or other sources of contamination, adequate sanitation and hygiene procedures) and to reduce the proliferation of micro-organisms (maintaining the cold-chain continuum from field to table).
The risk of microbial contamination of leafy vegetables (including herbs) is a significant public health issue, as identified by a joint report by the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The risk of contamination exists on the field, in the packing house, during transportation and storage, in the retail environment and in the home (e.g. contact with raw meat or poultry, or other non-ready-to-eat foods in the shopping basket or kitchen bench). The retail environment and transport from the retail environment to a consumer's home pose particular risks to the consumable plant parts (collectively, “retail risks”), in terms of both plant quality (physical damage) and safety (contamination).
A possible measure to reducing these risks is to sell seeds for consumers to grow consumable edible plants (e.g. leafy vegetables and herbs) for themselves. This overcomes many of the product quality and safety problems associated with harvesting and post-harvest processing. However, many consumers do not have the time, patience or appropriate space or conditions to “grow their own”. Further, many lack the ability to grow sufficient (or sufficiently varied) produce to meet their needs.
Retailers often sell potted culinary plants (especially herbs), as an alternative to cut culinary plants. Potted plants address the disadvantages of growing from seed and also overcome some of the difficulties with cut plants e.g. improved freshness, decreased risk of microbial contamination. However, the edible parts of potted plants are still vulnerable to “retail risks”, particularly from physical damage and/or contamination of consumable plant parts (e.g. leaves, flowers) from contact during transportation, display or storage for sale or in the consumer's shopping basket.
The risk for damage is particularly acute in retail environments that allow consumers to handle and select their own produce, and where the number of consumers handling produce is large.
Often potted plants tip over (in the trolley, a shopping bag or the car boot), further increasing the risk of contact between the edible RTE parts (e.g. leaves) and non-RTE foods or unclean surfaces. There are the added disadvantages of physical damage to leaves or other plant parts (indeed to the entire plant if a pot is completely overturned), and of dirt spilling out, leaving a mess.
There is a need for a plant display and storage apparatus/system for consumable plants that allows plants to be stored whole (uncut) and that provides protection against at least some of the risks posed by:                (a) the retail environment; and        (b) the transportation of consumable plants from the retail environment to the home.        
For consumable plants (e.g. ferns, flowering plants, succulents, herbs—any plant that needs to be replenished within days to months), this includes the need for protection against damage arising from unnecessary contact or impact to the plant (including damage caused by pots turning over in the retail environment such as in the shopping trolley or during transportation to the home).
There is also a need for a plant display and storage apparatus that provides flexibility to consumers to store ready-to-consume (whether for eating or immediate ornamental display) consumable plants according to individual consumption requirements. Some plants are typically or preferentially used in larger quantity than others, so an individual consumer may purchase multiple consumable plants. Typically these are lined up along a balcony, window sill or along a wall. The consumable nature of these plants means they are often left in their original in-store pot, forming an unsightly collection of individual disposable pots. It would be useful to have a display and storage system that could allow orderly arrangement of a plurality of consumable plants even in limited space, and if the display and storage apparatus was available stocked with the consumer's choice of live, consumable plant parts to ensure availability of consumable plant parts to the consumer. This would facilitate the replenishment of stock of consumable plant parts. It would also be useful to have a plant display and storage system that provides flexibility so that the orderly arrangement of plants and decorative components of the system can be adapted to the available space or end user's wishes.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,389,499 is a modular planting wall made of interlocking roughly rectangular blocks. The blocks are hollow for filling with soil or the like as a plant growing medium. One side of the rectangle is outwardly bowed and open upwardly so that when the blocks are stacked, the bowed part forms a planting trough or pocket extending outward from the erected wall. While the planting wall is made of hollow blocks, in use it is formed of a central earth-filled core. As such, it is cumbersome and messy to replace plants. This is a disadvantage if dealing with consumable plants that are intended to be replaced frequently.
EP0604749 describes an alternative self-supporting modular structure for containing plants and flowers and allowing the vertical arrangement of flower pots. It shares the disadvantage of U.S. Pat. No. 3,389,499 in that it is cumbersome and messy to replace plants. In addition, the self-supporting structure of EP0604749 is formed by a plurality of flower pots joined together by at least one channel. The channels allow the passage of irrigation liquid from one flower pot element to another. This is not ideal in an indoor environment to have open channels of liquid, which may be messy and unsightly, can attract mosquitoes in warm climate environments.
An added disadvantage of EP0604749 is while EP0604749 provides a structure for vertically arranging flower pots, the vertical arrangement of plants is achieved by stacking flower pots on each other (each flower pot separated from another by a channel). This means that only the pots on the uppermost “layer” of the structure can house a plant. In the remaining layers, the pots receive the foot of the pot above. Accordingly, the modular structure must also extend in at least one horizontal plane in order to house more plants. This makes the structure space inefficient.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,306 provides a modular rack for holding a flower pot, vase and the like. It is made to receive potted plants (or a vase) rather than relying on plants to be planted into a growing medium that sits within the modular structure. The rack includes a hollow support tube that can be displayed on a flat surface or fastened onto a wall. A number of support arms are attached to the support tube, slotting into the support tube at one end of each arm. The free end of each arm has a tray fastened to it. The trays are for holding a flower pot, vase or the like.
A disadvantage of the modular rack of U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,306 is that it does not overcome the problem of having an unsightly collection of disposable pots if used to display consumable plants. Further as the disposable pots used for consumable plants are typically not substantial in size or weight, they are liable to easily tip over and spill on the tray or over the edge of the tray—for example, if the support arm is knocked or in a strong wind. The modular rack of U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,306 does not address the likelihood of mess if a plant pot falls over.
Further, each support arm of the rack of U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,306 is attached to the support tube by means of a pair of retaining slots, which are made to receive a pair of hooked retaining protuberances that extend from the end of each arm. Hooking retaining protuberances into slots is a commonly used method for securing bookshelves to a pair of supporting tubes fastened to a wall. However, this method relies on the distribution of weight (from a shelf itself and/or items placed on the shelf) for stability and to securely hold the arm to the support tube. Accordingly, this arrangement is not ideal for small and light consumable plants because the support arms could be easily dislodged from the support tube.
Yet another disadvantage of the modular rack of U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,306 is that the support tube is a tubular structure. Therefore, either it must be permanently secured to a wall (which requires a free wall) or it requires a base of sufficient breadth relative to the height of the support tube in order to stand securely. These requirements limit the options for positioning of the modular rack.
It would be useful to have a modular plant display and storage system that can house potted plants without the need to re-pot or transplant the plants into growing medium that sits within the modular structure. Unlike the prior art systems described above, however, it would be useful if the modular system secures the pots in a manner that reduces the risks of plants tipping over and of spillage of plant and soil out the top of the pot, as well as the risk of water (and soil) seepage and mess from the bottom of the pot.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,022,183 provides a flower pot carrying tray with restraining means for plural pots. The tray has restraining means (walls in the tray) to stop a pot from moving parallel to the plane of the tray bottom wall, as well as restraining means to prevent transverse movement relative to the plane of the tray bottom wall. The latter restraining means comprises a protrusion formed in the tray bottom wall to sit in registration with a pot drain hole (i.e. the protrusion extends into the pot through the pot drain hole). The protrusion has a transverse lip adapted to overlie the pot bottom so that it “hooks” the pot onto the tray. A disadvantage of this restraining means is that it hooks through the holes in a pot, allowing soil and water (mud) to seep out into the tray. A further disadvantage is that the restraining means necessarily disturb the soil in a pot both when engaging and disengaging the pot. Yet another disadvantage is that the tray of U.S. Pat. No. 5,022,183 is much more shallow in depth than the pots it is designed to carry. This means that the tray has limited capacity to capture heavy seepage (e.g. overflow from overwatering) and to limit heavy seepage from escaping beyond the tray. A better method of securing pots is required to avoid mess in handling, transporting and displaying plants, including capturing heavy seepage.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a new or alternative plant display and storage system, apparatus and method for ready-to-consume, live consumable plants that allows the orderly arrangement of one or more plants (including without limitation edible and ornamental plants). It would be an advantage if the plant display and storage system were modular so that it provided flexibility and could be adapted according to an end user's needs or wishes. It would be a further advantage if the plant display system and apparatus also reduces the risk of plants tipping over or spilling during transport and handling by a consumer. It would be a further advantage yet again if the plant display system and apparatus also addresses the risks caused by unnecessary contact to consumable plant parts (e.g. leaves, stem, flowers, core).